Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 6, 1909

— On April 25, eight persons lost their lives by the sinking of a towboat in the Mississippi River below New Orleans.

— Two Japanese cruisers are now making calls at Pacific Coast ports. These cruisers were captured from the Russians during the war with Russia.

— The Supreme Court of Alabama has declared the prohibition law of that State valid, and it is stated that the law officers will now begin to enforce the act more rigorously, there having been hitherto a doubt as to its validity.

— The number of horses in the United States increased during the years from 1900 to 1908 by 6,455,000, adding to the value of such property in the United States during those years more than one and a quarter billion dollars.

— At the present time there is in operation in China a total of 2,170 miles of railway, with 806 miles of new road under construction. Provision has been made for the construction of an additional 2,232 miles, and 3,286 miles of new road are projected.

— Another substitute for wood in the making of paper has been discovered recently in the South. It is the okra plant, which is produced in large quantities in the Southern States. It is expected that a factory for the manufacture of paper from this plant will soon be erected at Macon, Ga.

— Nine men lost their lives through the sinking of a vessel on Lake Superior during a heavy storm on May 1.

— The lower branch of the Florida Legislature, on April 23, passed the McMullen state-wide prohibition bill, which had passed the Senate on the previous day. This bill provides for the submission of the question of state-wide prohibition to a vote of the people in 1910.

— The Red Cross Society has opened a fund for the relief of the thousands of helpless and homeless refugees in Asiatic Turkey. Ambassador Leishman, of the United States embassy at Constantinople, is acting with the society in getting funds to the bereaved and starving people.

— The refusal of an Italian storekeeper to pay $1,000 to the Black Hand Society in New York, resulted in the burning of the building which he occupied, on April 30. This building also contained tenements occupied by a number of families. Eight of these persons were burned to death, and fourteen others were more or less seriously injured.

— There were very pronounced earthquake shocks throughout Portugal and Spain on April 22. The populace of Lisbon were in great fear of a repetition of the disaster of 1755, but no serious damage was done at that place. The town of Benavento, however, was practically destroyed, and forty dead have been taken from the ruins. Two hundred sixty-eight persons were injured, and 12,000 are reported homeless. At Alhambra twelve were killed, and six at other places near Lisbon.

— Within the past few days the concern known as the sugar trust has paid into the United States Treasury the sum of $2,134,000 in penalties and unpaid customs duties, in settlement of all claims arising out of the fraudulent weighing of sugar on the docks of the sugar refineries in Brooklyn, N. Y., and Jersey City, N. J.

— A despatch from Vienna, Austria, dated April 29, states that the Austrian government contemplates the construction of seven battle-ships of the “Dreadnought” type. The fact that Austria and Germany are now practically allied, makes this program of Austria look like a reply to the offers of the English colonies to supply a certain number of battle-ships for the British navy.

— On May 25 the commander of the Turkish constitutional troops succeeded in inducing the sultan and his defenders to surrender without further conflict. The troops were disarmed, and placed under guard, and on April 29, the reports state, 250 of the leaders in the conspiracy were courtmarshalled and shot. The sultan was taken to the city of Salonika, with his family, where he is expected to end his days, under guard. The new sultan gives promise of a more humane reign, being much more democratic in spirit. It is understood, also, that he is to be ruler more in name than in fact. The government of the United States was the first to recognize the new head of the Turkish government. Russia and some of the other governments are holding aloof from such recognition until the new government shall demonstrate its ability to control, and shall make known its attitude toward existing international complications. Despatches from Paris state that mobs surrounding the villa where the deposed sultan is now living are demanding his head, this attitude being due to the fact that the responsibility for the uprising, the loss of lives in the fighting in and around Constantinople, and the massacres, lies, without doubt, at his door. It is also charged that on the very day of his surrender, the sultan took the life of one of the favorite members of his household, a beautiful Circassian girl of eighteen, and that he had prepared for a general massacre of all foreigners in Constantinople, including the representatives of foreign governments. The commander of the constitutional troops, learning of this intention, entered the city one day earlier than he had intended, thus frustrating the sultan’s purpose. Plans had been laid for demolishing foreign embassies, and blowing up banks and other strongly protected buildings. The ministry of the interior is convinced that the attacks on Armenians and other Christians in the Cilicia district were arranged from Constantinople, coming as they did at the same time as the mutiny of the Constantinople troops. A despatch from Alexandretta states that Moslems of that district have, during a two-days’ massacre, murdered 7,000 Armenians. The rivers of Asia Minor are still carrying dead bodies down to the sea. In one instance there was found floating in the river the mutilated body of a woman nailed to a cross. Turkish troops are now being despatched to the disturbed districts, and the new government is promising a thorough investigation of the massacres in Asia Minor, with a view to the punishment of those implicated.